PENNSYLVANIA
Catholic Standard
By Ann Rodgers, Special to the Standard
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
Victim-survivors who report childhood sexual abuse at the hand of clergy should not be criticized for pointing out times when Church leadership failed, according to Cardinal Donald Wuerl.
“They are the witnesses who call us to uphold our own moral teaching,” he said. “The survivors who came forward when sexual abuse was rarely spoken of in public triggered changes that protect children today.”
The cardinal also said, “Innocent people who gain public attention for coming forward should not be slandered because they did the right thing by seeking action against an abuser.”
He finds it troubling that a few online forums masquerading as victim-advocacy sites – with no apparent ties to any mainstream victim-advocacy organizations – attack some of the victim-survivors who had done the most to improve the Church’s response to allegations of child sexual abuse. In an effort to claim that then-Bishop Wuerl didn’t remove abusive priests, the sites try to discredit those who reported abuse in one of Pittsburgh’s best known cases: that of the late Anthony Cipolla.
Among those they malign is Tim Bendig, now 47, a former seminarian who sued the Diocese of Pittsburgh in 1988, reporting that then-Father Cipolla sexually abused him when he was 12 years old. Cipolla died earlier this year, maintaining his innocence.
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